


Convergences

by JTHM_Michi



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, Gen, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-02
Updated: 2016-02-02
Packaged: 2018-05-17 19:51:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5883466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JTHM_Michi/pseuds/JTHM_Michi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In another world, there is no resistance because the Republic never fell. In this world, how do Finn, Rey, and Poe find each other?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Convergences

In another world, Poe Dameron is not a resistance pilot because there is no resistance. The Republic never fell, the Jedi were never eradicated, and the Empire never rose. In this world, Poe Dameron is still an ace pilot but it’s for the Republic’s Armed Space Fleet. He’s a Commander of the “Wings of the Republic”, a branch that patrolled the edges of the Republic. The first “Wings” squadron was led by Anakin Skywalker and was responsible for ending the Hutt rule over the Outer Rim.

In this world, Leia Organa was raised alongside her twin brother by her biological parents. She is Leia Skywalker as a girl and Leia Amidala as an adult. She becomes the head of Children’s Affairs, an organization responsible for the orphans of the Republic. She doesn’t plan battles, have to shoot her enemies, or figure out how to feed and house soldiers and refugees alike with almost no money. She is still responsible for people though, does have to go into dangerous territories with little to no backup and figure out how to feed and house thousands of children. Instead of figuring out how to train her soldiers, she has to figure out how to put children through school, through therapy, through placement homes, and occasionally stand in the Jedi Temple as her kids are put through a placement test to become Initiates. The younger ones get absorbed into the Temple, as good as adopted out, and that’s good. Occasionally there are some who get to her, and thus to the Jedi, too late and those go to her brother.

In this world, Luke Skywalker didn’t want to leave his family to become a Jedi Knight. He had too much of his father in him to give up his heart. He trained with the Jedi but when a Master came to choose him to become a Padwan, he denied. He told the High Council he couldn’t stay and they let him go. He formed a smaller group of force users that mostly concentrated on blending back into society; that concentrated on ethics and the importance of balance in their lives and the force. He built on the studies of his father and found a careful middle ground between Jedi and Sith. He sometimes gets angry children with too much power and not enough empathy, children who were broken and filled with lighting and rage. Sometimes he can help them, but sometimes he can’t.

(In this world, Anakin Skywalker is no Jedi Knight but he is also no Sith Lord. He is a master of the force, but he was entirely self-taught. There was no one to tell him to be careful with his heart, no one to tell him that fear was a gateway to falling, no one to tell him that his heart would be the end of him. In every world, Anakin Skywalker is dangerous – the difference is how he is handled. The children his son can’t help get sent to Anakin and if he cannot help them, cannot get them stable and able to fake being okay until they are, he kills them. He cries when he does and his wife holds him afterwards and tells him about mercy. He remembers all their names, their faces, their voices, the way they felt in the force. He prefers the children who he can help, the ones who just needed a little extra attention and one on one interaction. Those kids usually become bodyguards of Senators and move to Coruscant semi-permanently. The Jedi watch over them and they send holo-messages back to Anakin and Padme periodically.)

In this world, Rey grows up on Jakku alone until she is eleven. Leia gets custody of her when the old woman who was caring for Rey dies. Leia knows she is too old for the Jedi, but takes her to them anyway. By the time they get to Coruscant, Rey is almost twelve. The Jedi Order like Rey but cannot accept her because of her age. They bring up the idea of having Luke train her and Leia agrees. Rey goes to Luke and she is a somber child at first. Distrustful and quiet but she is happy eventually. She twists the force around her to keep people at a distance but likes droids. Luke teaches her how to build things and she smiles at him. Padme Skywalker-Amidala makes her cookies and teaches her how to make caramel animals with the force. Rey thinks Padme is the most beautiful person she’s ever seen, even now that she has silver hair and permeant laugh lines on her face. This sentiment makes her Anakin’s fourth favorite person and he teaches her how to pilot starships and how to make a lightsaber. He takes her to a planet filled with crystals and echoes and lets her pick whichever one she likes the most. Anakin shows her the one he picked when he and Padme came here, decades ago. His is a pale blue, almost lavender, and he tells her he likes it so much because it was Padme’s favorite color. Rey picks a crystal that is as big as her fist and a deep blue, almost black. It sparkles in the dark and Anakin teaches her how to break it so it can power the light sword.

When they get back home, Rey stays with Anakin and Padme instead of going back to Luke and his Knights.

In this world, Finn Orion is born to his mother, his Alma, and their Kẹta. He is not taken from a dying woman’s arms and brainwashed to be little more than a cluster of numbers and letters. His mother is a small dignitary from a moon, clothed in greys and silver, hair turning grey at the temple and still so regal as she holds him in her arms. His Alma is his second mother, the one who actually gave birth to him, and she is fierce and dark as the night sky. Their Kẹta is their spouse and the parent Finn sees the least - she is small and mousy with big eyes and soft hands. He loves them all and they all love him. He grows up surrounded by love and support, encouraged to help others, and doesn’t touch a blaster until he is an adult. His childhood scrapes are healed with kisses and formed from falling off trees or getting too close to various animals, not from hand to hand combat or weapons training. He is happy and content with his life and knows who he is and where he comes from.

Rey and Finn met first, on Naboo. It is winter and just cold enough that long sleeves are needed, the kind of cold that blows through you but is easily forgotten once you get inside. Winter on Naboo is not as cold as winter on Yukala, the moon Finn was born and raised on, and Finn enjoys the difference in temperature. He loves snow, but is glad to see that Naboo’s trees are still in bloom and that snow hasn’t come down on Naboo for almost a standard decade.

He is not wearing a borrowed jacket and the underarmor of a stormtrooper, but comfortable slacks and a sweater bought for him by his Kẹta. Rey is also not in scavenger rags and a childhood hairdo she dared not change, but in a thick dress with long, open sleeves and one braid down her back with purple ribbon strung through it, mostly at Padme’s insistence.

Funnily enough, there is a coat thief involved.

* * *

 

“Stop him! Thief!” Someone shouted and Finn turned in time to watch as a being with gills and fins on his head leapt over an outdoor stand with a presumably stolen coat in hand. He couldn’t even hope to place the being’s species but he knew a thief when he saw one. His Kẹta was still in the bookshop and surely she wouldn’t begrudge him wanting to help catch a thief.

He exited the shop in a fast run and was just behind the offender when someone swung out of nowhere to kick the man in the side and sent him flying. The woman’s dress skirts flared around her as she twirled around, getting both her feet back under her, braid spinning out in an arc. She took two steps forward and planted a foot on the man’s back to keep him down, bending to yank the coat out of his hands.

“How dare you think to rob someone in plain daylight! Have you no sense?” She said strongly as both Finn and the shopkeeper caught up to her.

“Thank you, dear, my old bones can’t run as fast as they used to.” The shopkeeper said to the woman, bowing briefly before accepting the coat. “And you! Don’t think I didn’t inform the security guards, they’ll be here any moment!” The older woman scolded, spitting on the thief before walking back the way she came.

“Do you need any help or do you got this?” Finn asked. The woman turned to look at him, a grin on her face.

“If you could help me stand him up, that would be nice. I’m pretty sure he stole some jewelry from another vender.” Her voice was warm and smooth with the slight Naboo accent that made all her words sound sharp. He reached for one arm while she grabbed the other and together they tugged the man to his feet. He was heavier than Finn expected him to be and when the woman riffled through his pockets she came up with a handful of shiny gems while the man groaned. It sounded more like a gurgled choke than an actual groan, but that was probably just air going through the gills.

Naboo security was upon them in just a few short seconds after that, taking the being off their hands and promising to return the stolen gems. Finn liked that about Naboo - crime wasn’t a thing that happened here all that much, but just because it wasn’t prevalent didn’t mean there was no form of police.

“Thanks for the help, I’m Rey.” Rey introduced herself, holding out her hand.

“Finn Orion, nice to meet you.” He said, shaking her hand and the rest was history.

* * *

 

Poe Dameron loses his mother on a cold night. He tells various different stories of how it happened because he knows she’d like all the stories - that Yavin 4’s gravity failed to hold her and she floated away; that she jumped into Hyperspace and never came out; that she threw herself at a black hole and it swallowed her whole; that she flew to the ends of the galaxy and never returned. They all focus on flying because Poe knows that’s how she wanted to die - in the sky, in space, weightless and free.

She dies in her sleep, dreaming of the stars and the newest TIE fighter, and Poe doesn’t hear of it until three days later. He is told by his commanding officer, who offers the Republic’s condolences, and goes back home for the funeral. His father and grandfather welcome him home and they both look so much older and greyer than Poe remembers them being, like the light has been drained out of their clothes and eyes.

Poe mourns her the only way he knows how - he flies her favorite routes above Yavin 4, inks her name over his heart so he’ll always have her, and puts photos of her everywhere. He never stops loving her, couldn’t stop the ache from where she was supposed to be even if he wanted to, and comes away from her loss stronger than he thought it would leave him.

It doesn’t shock him when he loses his father soon after. It hurts, but he was expecting it - he grew up knowing his parents loved each other with such an intensity that the only outlet they had was creating a whole other person from their love, of course he followed her.

He meets Finn almost a year after he buries his father.

* * *

 

“Poe Dameron?” Someone asks from behind him and when Poe turns to see who it is there is a brief moment when the world narrows onto the man’s jacket and he thinks, strangely, that he’s wearing the wrong garment.

“That would be me, who’s asking?” Poe asks, voice cocky to try and cover the feeling of deja vu, of strange wrongness.

“I’m Finn Orion, I was told you’re the best pilot this side of Alderaan.” Finn says, smile on his lips and offering his hand. Poe shakes it in a daze, staring again at the soft lavender jacket on the other man’s shoulders, the deep blue shirt underneath it.

“Oh no, don’t go stroking this guy’s ego!” Jessika says loudly from nearby, coming up to sling an arm around Poe’s shoulders. Her touch shocks him out of his daze and he drops Finn’s hand - soft and his pinky was straight, why was that important? - and tries not to feel that the tips of his ears were burning.

Finn laughs and it causes Poe’s breath to catch in his chest. The man across from him is beautiful but Poe’s seen a lot of beautiful men, he doesn’t get why this one is throwing off his game so much. Poe smiles at Finn, beaming so much that he’s sure his dimples are showing, and Jessika’s arm tightens around his shoulders in warning.

“My company is designing new ships for the Armed Forces and I was told to ask around for some pilots to test out the software we were using. It’s a little different than the current batches out, we’re trying to streamline the hyperspace jumps so they’re faster to calculate and not as jarring but we haven’t actually gotten any pilots to test them out. Your commanding officer gave your name and where to find you.” Finn says and he’s all easy smiles and relaxed shoulders.

Poe bites his lip so he doesn’t say he’s open to testing out all sorts of things, not just software.

“I don’t know, we don’t really - “ Jessika starts to say but Poe cuts her off, wiggling out of her hold to pat Finn on the shoulder, just to have an excuse to touch the other man again.

“I would be delighted! The fact that it takes me a few minutes of flying to get into hyperspace drives me and my astromech crazy, a streamlined process that didn’t take away my turning ability would be most welcome. When and where do you want me?”

Finn gives him a holocard with an address and time on it and that’s that. As he walks out of the bar, Poe glances at his ass before letting his eyes trail up to take in his back and arms, his shoulders, and thick curling hair held up in an elaborate hairdo. He thinks, strangely, that Finn would look amazing in his mother’s flight jacket.

Jessika teases him for “being so obviously thirsty” for at least an hour.

* * *

 

In this world, Finn introduces Rey and Poe to each other and the two of them hover around each other, not sure of the other’s intentions. Rey sees a threat - someone who wanted her best friend for his body and would leave as soon as he got a good tumble out of him. She prods at his mind in a way that Anakin would disapprove of, tries to make Finn’s presence seem threatening to Poe, but it never works. Poe sees a rival, sees Finn give Rey secret smiles and hold her hand and aches from seeing them together. He tries to get closer to Rey, works down her walls and distrust, and eventually they become friends.

Finn is quietly ecstatic that his two favorite people are finally getting along.

When Poe kisses Finn the first time, it is not after a near-death experience. It is in the middle of the day and Finn tastes like asoula, a sweet nectar that makes Poe’s lips tingle. When he pulls away, Finn smiles at him and pulls him back in for another gentle kiss, his hand at the back of Poe’s neck. Poe sighs into the kisses, wraps his arms around Finn, and holds on because he can, because he’s allowed to. It’s never rushed, never a touch too desperate because this might be the last time he sees Finn, touches him, kisses him, gets to hold him in his arms. Their courtship is easy as breathing and just as gentle, just as inevitable.

The first time they have sex, Finn doesn’t feel like his chest is breaking open from a the sheer amount of love coursing through it. He doesn’t feel like he’s stealing something, like he’s getting something the people he grew up with will never know or understand. There is no edge to their love making, no back of the mind wondering if their next mission will see one of them dead, no desperation breed from fear. Afterwards, the bed they lie in is big enough for both of them and Poe smiles at Finn, laughing in happiness and sprinkling little kisses across Finn’s face. In the morning, they sleep in and explore each other more, because they can, not because they might not get another chance to later.

However, they also don’t live together in this world. Months will go by when they’re not even in the same system, let alone on the same planet. Poe will return to his own quarters on base and collapse into his bunk and ache for Finn, too miserable to even think about what time and day it is wherever Finn is and if it would be feasible to comm him. Poe retires from the Armed Forces early, not because of an injury or discharge, but simply because he’s getting tired of coming home to empty beds and empty rooms.

In this world, Rey has known her whole life that she’s asexual. She knows the terminology for it and doesn’t think for one moment that it means something in her is broken because Anakin and Luke are too - and Anakin has kids! A wife who loves him and they have sex and he’s okay with it because he likes making her happy, likes feeling her happy. In this world, Rey has someone to ask all sorts of awkward questions about sex and how it works and how people like her would have it if she felt like it. In this world, Anakin explains to her how he can feel everything Padme can feel when they’re intimate and that’s _how_ they’re intimate, how it works for him. Luke tells her that he doesn’t like touching at all and that the most he enjoys is holding hands and feeling someone’s joy through the Force. She has all sorts of resources to explore and help her explore where her comfort zone is.

The first time she and Finn kiss, she’s seated in his lap and his hands are in her hair and she likes kissing. They try to go farther and when she pulls away from him, he lets her. In this world, they’re both not stumbling through finding her comfort zone without knowing they should be looking for it. Rey discovers she likes kissing Finn, likes cuddling with him, and likes feeling him get himself off - the white hot joy that shoots up her spine like lightning when he comes and the soft, warm bliss that comes after.

In another world, it is an accident that lets Poe and Rey find that they like each other more than friends. A horrible accident that lets all three of them know that they’re it for each other and maybe they should stop torturing themselves by trying to ignore the others. It is an X-Wing on fire, a battered astromech screaming through the comms before there is nothing but static. It is a furious fight with ships in the air and soldiers on the ground, two lightsabers clashing in the distance. It is Poe Dameron unconscious and Finn sobbing with Rey numb next to him as the Resistance flights against the clock to get Poe stabilized. It is Poe waking up with both of them curled awkwardly against him and around the various tubes and wires attached to him; Poe telling Rey that she doesn’t have to have sex to show them she loves them and both of them holding her when she rages that she’s broken. It’s two parts of their trio being on edge and not sure if what they have is real or the result of the war and stress and fear for months.

But in this world, that doesn’t happen. In this world, Poe and Rey share their first kiss over a box of the cheapest vodka on planet. Finn is dealing with a taxation disaster against his company and they are alone. They kiss and Poe laughs and Rey giggles and they are so drunk they pass out on the floor. Finn tucks them into bed and when they all wake the next day he kisses them both before going back to the office. Rey and Poe circle each other metaphorically for hours before finally meeting in the middle and talking like actual, functioning adults.

Poe loves Rey with an intensity that startled him because he’s always thought of himself as a one-guy sort of fellow. Rey loves Poe with a clarity that shocks her to her stomach because she’s never loved anyone the way she loves Finn and then there was Poe and she loved him just as much and that was very, very scary.

In this world, Finn grew up between three adults that loved each other equally and always figured that was the way his relationship was going to go. Poe and Rey had been all over the galaxy for various reasons and knew that such relationships existed and flourished and they were able to fall into being together easily. They all live together, whatever planet they’re on, and they’re happy.  

They fight sometimes, as all couples do. Finn may be the eternal peacemaker but when he gets mad, he goes glacier cold and silent, leaves the bed and sleeps on the couch or at his work. Poe’s mouth gets away from his brain sometimes when he shouts and he exiles himself to bars until Jessika or Temmin cut him off and take him to one of their places to sleep it off. Rey clenches her jaw and feels the Force in her bones, in her blood, thrumming to come out and _hurt_. The first - and only - time she slammed Poe into a wall without laying a finger on him she threw up all over herself and fled to Alderaan.

She had claimed Anakin and Padme as her parents but could not go to them for this. She couldn’t bare to tell them that she had harmed one of her own partners using the Force, out of anger at him, couldn’t bare the stricken pain such an admission would get from her father. (Her father was so old now, it scared her that she had chosen him as her father and not Han Solo, Leia’s husband. Leia had found her, why couldn’t she have chosen them as her mother and father? Anakin and Padme were so old now, Padme’s hair completely silver and Anakin’s handsome face bore proud, distinguished wrinkles. Would his disappointment in her break his heart the way she feared it would?) She did not go to her parents but her pseudo-nephew, Ben Amidala-Solo.

Ben was older than her by a good five or so years and when she showed up at his doorstep in the middle of the night with no warning he pulled her into a hug and she sobbed against his shoulder. (In another world, she would sob against his shoulder too but in a very, very different circumstance. He would be bleeding from some wounds and his mind would brush against hers gently, whispering that he loved her, _thank you, Rey, thank you_ he would whisper, his mind growing faint. She would sob against his shoulder, holding him and he would die, broken in her arms.)

But in this world, he just let her into his small home and picked her up as if she were a little girl again and walked to his couch. She sobbed bitterly against him, terrified and disgusted with herself, and he pressed kisses against her temple and rubbed her back. When she started to call Padme _mom_ and Anakin _dad_ , Ben started calling her _Auntie Rey_. It was hilarious because he was older than her and he would say it the same way he used to call her _Sunshine Rey_. Being so close in age meant that Ben was her best friend in addition to being her family.

He knew why she was there, of course. The first thing Poe had done once she fled was try to run after her but she had a head start because she, in her rage, had almost broken his shoulder. (When she heard that she threw up again and wanted nothing more than to throw herself down into an abyss.) Once he got back to their house, he commed her whole family to tell them to be on the lookout for her because _he was worried about her_.

(Leia had commed Ben to tell him about what had happened and all he said was “I know she’s upset” and left it at that. When he felt her landing on Alderaan, he commed Finn and Poe to let them know where she was. They offered to come get her, Ben told them to wait for her to come to them.)

When she came back home, she was terrified it would happen again. Poe and Finn told her they loved her, that it wouldn’t, that it was an accident. She told them that if she ever did that again, they had to promise her they’d leave her. They were horrified, she was firm. They agreed and she never did it again.

They got married on Finn’s planet and it was beautiful. Poe cried and Finn was so happy it almost hurt Rey to look at him. She didn’t realize that she was smiling so widely and so much until the reception when her cheeks started to hurt.

In this world, there is no resistance but they find each other all the same.


End file.
